White Coppice 1st XI returned to the top of Division Five after an emphatic eight-wicket win against Walton-le-Dale 2nd XI on Saturday.
Tom Sandells continued his excellent form with his 3rd fifty of the season and shared an unbroken 93-run partnership with Anis Haider to guide his team to victory.
White Coppice put in their best fielding performance of the season to dismiss the visitors for 97 from 40 overs.
With the midges out in force all week, Elliot France cut a dash at the nets on Tuesday clad in a full head net!
Walton-le-Dale’s team included former White Coppice players Mick Brown and captain Luke Pilkington.
Pilkington’s first job was to lose the toss and Jake Smalley had no hesitation in asking the visitors to bat first on a green wicket.
Nathan Shepard was convinced he’d made an early breakthrough when he thought opener Vikas Kumar had edged a flat-footed drive to Ant Dark behind the stumps but the umpire remained unmoved.
Smalley decided to open the bowling with spinner Ryan Adderley, who was rewarded with figures of 3-27 from an unchanged 15-over spell.
Kumar rode his luck to share an opening partnership of 50 with Mohammed Nazife (22) before he was eventually dismissed for a top score of 24.
His dismissal saw Walton-le-Dale lose seven wickets for 14 runs with Visakh P Visakh being the main beneficiary with figures of 4-13.
Toby Haworth was unlucky when he was LBW to a delivery from Visakh which kept very low while Pilkington went first ball after being struck on the pads.
Wicketkeeper Dark put in a faultless display behind the stumps, taking three catches and one stumping. He also conceded only one bye.
Special mention for Ibby Akram, who took an excellent catch at midwicket above his head.
Walton-le-Dale slipped to 73-8 and only reached 97 thanks to a combination of Brown’s knock of 15 and 19 wides.
Coppice got off to a bad start when Chris Maguire was adjudged LBW on the front foot for 3 and Dan Preston dragged one to mid-off to leave the innings at 5-2.
At that point, Walton-le-Dale’s fielders were very vocal but Sandells (56 off 85 balls) and Haider (28 off 72 balls) shared an unbroken 93-run stand for the third wicket to kill off their faint hopes.
Watched on by his proud parents – and wearing his new cricket boots – Sandells was particularly strong off the back foot and has now scored 285 league and cup runs at an impressive average of 95.
The 12-point win saw Coppice return to top spot along with Gregson Lane.
White Coppice 2nd XI were on the wrong side of a last ball thriller against Burscough 2nd XI on Saturday.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, captain Martin Cuerden lost his six toss in a row ( at odds of 64-1) and Coppice were asked to bat first.
Coppice 2nds were much changed from last week, with four players moving up from the 3rd XI due to availability issues.
Two of those players, James Hurst (38) and Janayed Ilyas (11) helped rebuild after both openers went early.
Putting on a partnership of 38 with Hurst scoring freely, Matt Phillipson joined him to hit a quickfire 13 and his dismissal left Coppice at 64-4 after 16.
However, the introduction of Burscough’s spinners brought the run rate right down, bowling tight lines and lengths proved difficult to get away, with Hurst being starved of the strike.
Coppice lost wickets at regular intervals falling to 105ao in the 40th over.
That score looked under par but John Townson (1-26) and Anto Kuriakose (2-22) reduced Burscough to 28-3.
However, a good partnership between Ollie Bevan and Marlo Dalrymple settled things for the hosts,
At drinks they were 53-3, exactly halfway there with the runs and with plenty of wickets to spare.
Dalrymple fell with the score on 65 to Adam Mannan, however with Bevan at the crease, Burscough were still favourites.
Veteran Jeff Smith turned the game on its head though getting Bevan caught and bowled for 34 leaving Burscough 81-6 and suddenly it was game on!
No 7 James Bevan had other ideas though and hit a quickfire 20 to seemingly win the game for Burscough before falling to Smith as well, who ended up taking 3-16 off 10 overs.
Burscough were left needing just six runs off five overs, and it seemed Coppice’s only chance was to bowl them all out.
However, some tight bowling from Smith and Cuerden restricted them to just three runs from the next four overs, leaving Smith to defend three runs off the final over for an unlikely win.
It all came down to the last ball with the equation being one run for a tie and two for a win.
With the field in close, young Harrison Bevan cleared the outfield and scampered home for the two runs and a thrilling win.
Coppice were unlucky to pick up just three points from a game they were just one ball away from winning!
White Coppice 3d XI’s game against Brinscall 3rd XI on Sunday was delicately poised when the match fell victim to the weather.
Batting first, Coppice slipped to 19-5 before James Speakman (19) and Mike Houghton (18) steadied the ship with a partnership of 28 before the latter was dismissed.
Atiq-Ur Rehman (14) and Speakman took the score to 70 before Coppice were eventually bowled out for 93.
In reply, Brinscall fell to 52-4 before the rain came down.
Mike Houghton took 2-26, while Joe Seager took an excellent catch.